Aston Villa are going to have do it the hard way if they are to make it through to the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in six years.

It would have been a travesty if Milan Baros's superb second-half strike had proved the matchwinner, after David O'Leary's side had been comprehensively outplayed by Manchester City.

But little-known teenage defender Micah Richards' injury-time equaliser with the final blow of the game ensured that City's name deservedly joined Villa in this lunchtime's sixth round draw.

And the two teams will now have to wait until March 8 - and possibly even a week later than that, if it is booked for live TV - before this tie is settled.

In front of Villa Park's lowest crowd of the season, it would have been over by half-time had Villa old boy Darius Vassell and his City teammates had their shooting boots on.

Roared on by their raucous 6,000-strong travelling army, it was no surprise that City should have made the brighter start. But the sheer scale of their total domination of the first half was a shock.

While Villa's fans had shown what they thought of 6.30 kick-off times on a Sunday night by staying at home to watch on TV, the players' collective first-half no-show was not quite so expected.

Admittedly, the lively Vas-sell was a factor, the returning old boy proving a constant thorn, but he would still have gone in at half-time cursing himself for not having scored.

It was Vassell's early goal, the first of two strikes that night, which had put City on the way to their 3-1 league win against Villa at East-lands four months ago.

Vassell's first sighter this time ended up in the Holte End from 12 yards out, but Georgios Samaras was a lot more accurate in testing the busy Thomas Sorensen for the first time, drilling a fierce, low left-foot effort into the Villa goalkeeper's midriff.

Sylvain Distin then ballooned horribly into the crowd following a corner that resulted from Sorensen making a meal of a cross. But the Dane was soon back on top form, coming to the rescue when Vassell was suddenly gifted the best chance of the half.

Under pressure from Antoine Sibierski, Jlloyd Samuel's attempted back pass fell woefully short and Vassell was away, heading towards his old adoring Holte End, with time, space and the ball at his feet. But, in trying to dribble round Sorensen, his second touch was poor and the Villa keeper timed his grasp superbly to gather the ball.

Vassell's next run on goal came from the other flank when Aaron Hughes this time got mugged, but again Vassell's dribbling skills let him down.

The City chances were starting to pile up, though. Sibierski headed a foot wide from Kiki Musampa's cross. Then Sorensen made another even better save, tipping Joey Barton's shot wide after Vas-sell had cleverly chested down Sibierski's pass. And it was again Sibierski who then threatened, firing over from the resulting corner.

Vassell then got clean away for the third time in the half after foxing Olof Mell-berg with his footwork. But, despite the option to his right of Sibierski in yards and yards of space, Vassell opted to go alone and ended up flat on his backside.

Sorensen had one more scrambled save to make off Sibierski before the half-time whistle thankfully blew for Villa.

It's hard to imagine when they had been so outplayed at home, their only moment of menace proving to be a mild kerfuffle from a James Milner corner.

Villa did at least start showing a bit more after the break. Gavin McCann had a shot deflected wide before his midfield partner Steven Davis finally managed the home side's first effort on target.

But it was after a five-minute City blitz on the Witton End goal that Villa went in front.

Defenders Richards, Distin and Richard Dunne all went close. And perhaps it was the realisation that they looked destined to play all night and not score that made the visitors buckle at the other end.

It was a scrappy build-up as Baros and Davis got a series of lucky breaks to exchange passes with each other. But the finish was top drawer, Baros slamming his shot beyond James with a touch of class completely absent from anything else Villa did last night.

It looked like, with this sort of luck, Villa must have their name on the Cup.

But City got the reward they deserved at the very least. In the third minute of injury time, David James' presence in the six-yard box proved a massive distraction and 17-year-old Richards, playing only his second game, arrived behind him to power home a header.